Whiplash: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part one

Whiplash: without a shadow of a doubt, this was the film of the festival. Some critic somewhere will describe this as “cinematic Viagra” or a “tour de force” – and that critic will not be wrong.

If you hate jazz, you may struggle to enjoy this, but if you’re agnostic or love jazz, this will knock your socks off. It’s one of the great music movies.

In brief, the film charts a student jazz drummer’s attempts to impress his conservatory’s most demanding jazz teacher, played with venomous zeal by JK Simmons (in a rare lead role). The latter’s Fletcher makes the headmaster from Pink Floyd The Wall look like a jolly nice chap! He believes great talents are not nurtured, but are pressured and shaped by strong forces that push them through their natural barriers – in other words, bullying into brilliance!

Fletcher puts Miles Teller’s student Andrew through the mill throughout the film: he machine guns insults at him, putting Andrew under almost unrelenting fire, and frequently and deliberately undermines him. As much as you’re laughing at the very definitely non-PC phrases that Fletcher spits out, you’re all too aware of the pain they’re causing to Andrew and the other students.

Framed almost as a sports movie or action movie, Whiplash builds to a crescendo that left me breathless. It is hard to convey how well this mashes up character-driven drama and electrifying and immersive 'action'. On the face of it, the basic plot may be a bit pat, but in detail it raises questions about approaches to education and training. To say anymore will ruin your enjoyment.

As well as the performances (JK will surely be shortlisted by all the awards bodies and may well scoop all the big gongs), the film boasts brilliant direction from Damien Chazelle (who also wrote the semi-autobiographical script), while the combination of Sharone Meir’s cinematography and Tom Cross’s editing give the film astonishing and gripping vigour. Indeed, the Academy might as well give Cross the Best Editing Oscar now because no other editor stands a chance against his work here.

Whiplash storms into the UK on 16 January: miss it at your peril!

Score: 10/10

The Imitation Game: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part two

A great British film about a great British man, ImitationGame deserves to be as successful as The King’s Speech (it is certainly as crowd-pleasing as the Colin Firth powerhouse), and will figure strongly in awards season, especially at the BAFTAs.

Director Morten Tyldum follows up his breathtaking and breathless Headhunters with this elegantly-paced, thoughtful and finally moving drama about the man who designed the Enigma code-breaker. 

The film covers some of the same ground as Enigma but offers more of an insight into Alan Turing, played with customary excellence by Benedict Cumberbatch (but is he just playing a shade of Sherlock with a whiff of Dr Who?).

Cross-cutting between key periods in Turing’s life, the film charts his time at school, his war-winning stay at Bletchley Park, and his subsequent fall from grace (Rory Kinnear is excellent as the cop who inadvertently brings Turing down).

Keira Knightley remains an acquired taste to me, but she fits well here as the only person who can live with Turing’s intellect.

Matthew Goode exudes a natural charm as one of the code-breakers (somebody give him a really meaty role, please!), while Charles Dance and Mark Strong get to chew the scenery as the top brass.

Some may find the film a little too of its time, but I think Tyldum’s approach is perfect: this most British of heroes deserves a most British of movies. Of particular note is the two-part scene in which Turing’s team break the Enigma code: cue celebrations and then the heart-breaking realisation of the impact of doing so..

Score: 9/10

The New Girlfriend: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part three

If you love films, you probably love Hitchcock. If you love Hitchcock, you should love Francois Ozon. The French director - probably best known for 8 Women, The Swimming Pool, Potiche, In The House and Jeune & Jolie - reaches a personal zenith with The New Girlfriend, combining the steely, cynical plot twists of Hitch with a never-before-witnessed heart and soul.

Hopefully the trailer, the posters and the critics will not give away the key plot development that the film hinges upon (and it happens early in the film, so don’t arrive late for the screening!).

Briefly, the perfect woman dies, leaving her best friend, played in a star-making turn by Anais Demoustier, to look over Romain Duris’s widower and her god-son.

The range of emotions that Demoustier’s Claire goes through are written on her face and pour out of her eyes – it’s one of the performances of 2014.

As the widower David, Duris simply reinforces how good he is: it’s hard to conceive of any other actor carrying off this role with such aplomb and empathy.

Funny, moving but still within Ozon’s territory of questioning sexuality and the confident veneer of the petit bourgeoisie, The New Girlfriend is damned near perfect.

Score: 9/10

The Face Of An Angel: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part four

The Face Of An Angel is the latest from Michael Winterbottom demands to be seen at least twice so you can fully interrogate and understand the film’s many layers.

Based on the Meredith Kercher murder case, Paul Viragh’s inspired script not only reflects on the media’s role in reporting the case, but also, via its framing device, an empathetic touch, and an unexpected dose of horror movie chills, becomes substantially more than a whodunit.

Daniel Bruhl (Nikki Lauda in Rush) is excellent as the writer/director suffering writer’s block who is commissioned by the movie execs from hell to create a film about the case. Off to Italy he goes, to immerse himself in the case’s locale.

A combination of drugs, booze and his desire to use Dante's Inferno as a thematic device for his script, throw him into his own circles of hell.

Once there, he finds himself being pushed and pulled by a handful of key supporting players: Kate Beckinsale’s journalist; Corrado Invernizzi’s disturbing local expert; and Cara Delevingne’s English student/waitress.

It would have been easy for each of these three to be 2D, but Viragh and Winterbottom give them all enough time and space for the audience to really feel their impact on Bruhl.

A film of intelligence and heart.

Score: 9/10

Love Is Strange: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part five

Love Is Strange: a more exquisite meditation on the beauty of strong, long-term relationships is hard to think of in modern cinema.

Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are both on top form as a gay couple, nearing the end of their fourth decade together. The film immerses us in their lives, opening with their long-awaited wedding and then showing us the unintended consequences of that day.

Director and co-writer Ira Sachs delicately dissects the central pair’s relationship with a level of intimacy rarely achieved on screen: you feel like a fly on the wall as they go through their ups and downs.

Not at a lot happens in plot terms, and yet so much happens in emotional terms.

Among the supporting cast, Marisa Tomei is almost inevitably excellent, but this is the Molina and Lithgow show. The pair have been guilty of mercilessly chewing the scenery in the past, but here they both display light, understated touches that perfectly suit the material. If there’s an award for the best on-screen couple of 2014, these two deserve it.

See this with one you love: you will not regret it.

Score: 9/10